The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-06-10
THE NATIONAL CREDIT.
a Few Posers Gse TIRE stupid Grioders oi
Freo.Irade Orgsns.

rev Posers e. the stspid Gr,sders Of
Fres.frade Orgsns.
Does Il ever occur to free-tradc
ranters and roarers, thinkers and the
orists. spectators and sentimentalists,
that the first material want of . man
or . nation, or. at any rate of civil
lied man or nation, is just plain
money?
Cheap material for which his money
may be exchanged is a very secondary
matter; indeed. cheap material r., was.
and forever will be, despite of all tho
legislation that ever was or can be de-
vised, in reach of him who has much
money. ITO him that hath shall be
given, and from him that hath not
shall he taken away that which he
hath" is SO self-evidcntly true in trade
that it might have been written Of
economies instead Of pietistics.
The free-trade policy is toward driv-
ing the naturally scanty money Of
America to Europe, the protective
policy is toward drawing the surplus
money of Europe to America. 1t has
been so successful that our natural
dearth of money has been connected
with something like plethora. We hold
the second and are constantly nearing
the first position of wealth among ma
tons As result of our requirement
of money we have acquired the power
of making and selling and buying
things cheaply. The requisites Of civ
ilizcd life have been cheapened since
the adoption of the protective policy.
cheapened till they can be had for less
money in the United States than in any
other country of the world. England
excepted. and they continue in pro-
cess of cheapcning that indicates the
near approach of a time when they
will be absolutely as cheap here a.
there. They are now relatively
cheaper.
1t is in vain that the free-trade or
gans and organettes protest that the
reduction of American prices has been
accompanied by like reduction Of
prices the world over. 1t is protest
from false philosophy which, as St
John says. ''loveth and makcth a lie."
1t is wholly untrue that in England
or elsewhere that there has been any
thing approaching to the fall in Amer
lean prices of all that men use or need.
And it is, if possible, still further from
truth that anywhere else than here has
there been such stiffening of the price
of labor. Under protection money has
become ntiful-necessarily so, for our
own money has been largely kept ut
home, and foreign money has been
largely drawn to us. Under protection
wages have risen. and what wages buy
follow; wages are high. and the neces-
saries, comforts and luxuries of life
low. Under free trade, or that near
neighbor to free trade. which was
once our National policy. money was
scarce, wages low. the comforts of life
so high as to be out of the reach OF
most. and luxuries SO costly as to be
attainable by very few.
Sophistries may be evolved by free
traders as plenteously as glutinous web
from the bowels of the spider. but the
great facts of the relative prices of
money, labor and products remain un-
changed. The relative prices of Amer
lean and European securities in the
money centers of the world are sufii-
cient answer to the assailants of our
National policy. If free trade be the
enduring and bcnefccnt quality that is
asserted, why does the surplus money
of Il free-trade country prefer Amcri-
can securities to those of its own land?
If protection be the dclusivc and inn
poverishing essence that is asserted.
why does the surplus money of the pro-
tectionist country prefer home invest
ments to foreign ones? Money has no
creed; it has only an unfailing and UNI
erring instinct of movement toward
other money. Its present movement
is decidedly hitherward, as the prices
of American securities show. 1t is
needless to add. because the free
traders will pay no attention to so Of
fensive truth, that American secure
ties were very little sought after in the
good old free-trade days.-Ch,cago In
ter Ocean.